Chapter 18 - The Search for the Blue Ledger
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I looked past Victoria's smug face, my mind racing. Evan had destroyed the Beacon Point records to save himself and frame David. But Arthur’s letter explicitly stated: The blue ledger explains the rest of the Beacon Point mess.
Arthur wouldn't have just kept his own records; knowing Arthur’s meticulous engineering background, he would have demanded copies of everything David and Evan were doing before cutting David off. If the blue ledger had copies of Evan’s original fraudulent loan documents, I could clear David’s name of the worst charges and put Evan and Victoria behind bars where they belonged.
“Get out of my house,” I told Victoria coldly.
“Make your choice, Eleanor,” she taunted.
“I said get out!” I roared, summoning the voice that had once commanded aircraft carriers. Victoria instinctively stepped back, intimidated despite herself. She grabbed David’s arm, dragging him toward the door.
“We have 48 hours before the judge finalizes the asset freeze review. Think about your grandchildren,” she threw over her shoulder as they left.
When the door slammed shut, the house fell into a deafening silence. I had to find that ledger.
Evan had torn the guesthouse apart and found nothing. That meant Arthur hid it inside the main house. I walked into Arthur’s study, a grand room lined with thousands of books. I stood in the center, closing my eyes, trying to channel my late husband.
Where would an engineer hide a diary of his greatest failures?
My eyes slowly opened and drifted toward the fireplace. Above the mantel was a massive, built-in bookshelf devoted entirely to naval history—my books. Arthur never read them. He always joked they were too dry.
May you like
I walked over. I reached up to the third shelf and pulled down a thick, heavy volume titled The Pacific Theater Tactics.
Behind the book, flush against the dark wood paneling, was a small, biometric wall safe I had never seen before in my life.
